PART VII. PICTURESQUE IMPROVEMENT. 



437 



gravel walk : all the old surface of the rocks, which were beau- 

 tifully varied by mosses, weatherstains, and plants springing 

 from their crevices, was hewn off. This fresh, even surface, 

 destroyed all the intricate concealments, crevices, lichens, 

 and ferns, and every circumstance corresponding with their 

 character and situation ; while the ground in front of it, and 

 all around, was neatly laid with turf, and made smooth and 

 even. Thus, the grandeur and picturesqueness of these rocks 

 were totally destroyed, and the whole mass made little better, 

 in appearance, than an upright bank of red-coloured earth. 

 The stream, too, which runs in this dell, was deprived of almost 

 every beauty; particularly that of intricacy and shade, by re- 

 ducing its edges to regular curves, and sloping the banks ; and 

 in places intended to be most seen, it was turfed neatly down 

 to the brink of the water. 



" Sbav'd to the brink our brooks are taught to flow, 

 H Where no obtruding forms or rushes grow." 



Every thing being smoothed and levelled, and the approach 

 formed and covered with red ashes, which are still more glaring 

 than gravel*, tender shrubs, larches and flowers, were planted 



* Not only is breadth of glaring colours to be avoided in such scenery, but even 

 smooth forms should not prevail. The gravel here used should have been coarse 

 and of a dark colour ; which not only would have better accorded with the pro- 

 per visible effect, but in walking or driving over it the sensations produced upon 

 the body would have been analogous to the impressions of roughness or picturesque 

 beauty. Every one must have felt the difference between driving over smooth un- 



